… and Johnny Winter, Molly Ivins, Lady Bird Johnson, James Cotton, Albert Collins, Lucy Parsons … I could go on for hours.
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So true. Hence the Democratic Farmer Labor Party in MN. I remember reading years ago (when What’s the Matter with Kansas? was much in the news?) about Nebraska (as I recall) farmers who were part of collective that owned farm equipment (those massive harvesters and the like) which none of them could afford to purchase on their own. At the same time, they railed against “socialism” and “communism” (which they couldn’t distinguish from one another). One of the sites I just visited to learn more about Norwegian Americans, which reported on a recent book, made a big deal of Norwegian “volunteerism” and “community spirit” and included a photograph of a barn-raising either here or in Norway – as if rural folks everywhere, if they are fortunate enough to own or lease their own small farms, don’t participate together in things like barn-raising.
I observed something when I was researching my MA-to-RI-to-WI-to-MN family line (about whom I knew almost nothing). I found, online, local histories from the late 19th century, and articles from newspapers like The Mower County News, that celebrated “the pioneers” of Whitewater and Milwaukee (Wauwatosa, actually) and Mower County. These accounts were written as if Richard had gone to WI from RI in 1838 all by himself, joined a year later by his “pioneer” wife, Lydia, and their two toddlers (one born while Richard had gone ahead to WI). Turned out, I kept finding more and more of Richard’s brothers and sisters-mit-husbands (he had 10 siblings/half-siblings) coming at the same time (one brother) or within a year or two (all but one sister, who stayed with her husband and children in Providence). Also joining the clan in WI a year or two later: Richard’s father and stepmother. In 1859 Richard did go to MN with just his wife and 10 children (the eldest of whom would die a few years later in the CW, from disease), but a son of one of his sisters who had ended up back east soon moved to Minneapolis… Anyway, Richard was a “pioneer,” but hardly on his own.
His MA and RI ancestors would have called this “planting,” not “pioneering,” and they always settled on frontiers with family and other fellows. But in the late 1800’s a Colonial historian wrote a book, The Pioneers of Western Massacusettes. The myth of rugged individualism was being applied to the late 1600’s.
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She is in for power and for as long as the money lasts.
I’d love to take a trip again (50+ years later). But I can’t imagine I’d find a source I could trust.
Back in the day, tho…can’t believe the stuff I would take without much concern at all. Never did really have a bad trip though…except for those giant spiders. Boris gave me a flashback feeling!
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My husband’s Swedish grandfather came to avoid being drafted into the Finnish Army. I don’t know about the grandfather on the other side except once here he worked for the railroad. Eventually, everyone worked for the steel mills around Pittsburgh.
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I married a Swede and I see him and his family all have the look but with their personalities I cannot imagine any of them being Vikings.
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Hey! I have that book!..somewhere…
As I recall it was way over my head as a boy just looking to have fun…
What kills me is that dumbass was invited to the party only because this woman wanted to get down with Mrs Fascist Asshole. He had a kinky little wife and got to have the kind of fund most men only see online. But - and here’s the warning for all of us - he was such an entitled psychopathic fascist that he thought he could take her whenever he wanted. That’s the dangerous mental illness caused by religion - I’m right, therefore you cannot argue with me.
Religion needs to end. All of them.
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That is called limited government.
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One of the characters in my family’s history is Mrs. Guri Moe. She emigrated from Norway with her husband and brother in law at the beginning of he 20th Century. That part of Central Minnesota, has very marginal soil for agriculture, but according to legend Mr. Moe told his brother: “We can grow potatoes here, and there is fish in the lake, so we should be ok”. My grandfather was marveled at such a low expectations for life, but I guess when you are escaping starvation, keeping body and soul together is an acceptable goal.
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Wow…just…wow.
What a find! One of the ‘newer’ songs?
What, they couldn’t get the rights to MC5 Kick Out The Jams…?
Laudable, to be sure.
My crowd was more the let’s throw him in the deep end and see what happens!
Come to think of it, I do recall watching many calls to Acid Rescue (hmmm…none were…fatal) so I did get pretty good at the connection and calming thing.
One of Richard’s sons, my great grandfather Will, was born in WI, was a young teen when they went on to MN, helped his father and brothers break prairie on the incredibly rich soil of Mower County, and as a young man had his own farm. As it happens, Will didn’t like farming and, according to one of his daughters, Helen, whose letter to my father I have, wasn’t very good at it, either. Will seems to have been very religious (well, they all were, but Will very much so) and sort of passive, but his wife Callie – born in Alabama of Connecticut/RI parents who, for reasons that flummox me, had moved to Alabama as young marrieds, and then she as a little girl came from Alabama with her parents to Mower County after the CW – well, Callie was a force of nature, and thanks to her, she and Will sold their Mower County farm, moved to a college town where Will painted houses; all but the eldest of their 10 children – a girl who never married and always stayed with her parents – went to college, even the girls. Callie saw to that.
So, where was I going? Notice that Richard moved to WI and MN just after each had gained statehood, felled woods in Wauwatosa, and broke prairie where Indians had recently been removed as a serious threat to white settlers. In other words, he worked his ass off but also benefited (shrewdly) from “being there first.” His sons did, too. (His other sons – less Henry, who died in the CW – were more ambitious than Will. For instance, one went to Nevada as a young man, made a lot of money from silver mining and, returning to MN, bought a number of farms in Mower County and became very wealthy in a farm-owning way (he also worked his own). Another introduced – get this! – commercial hog farming to MN! That one also served in the MN legislature. He also lost both his daughters, his only children.)
Will and Callie retired to San Diego (that’s a story in itself, involving Callie’s “bachelor uncle” Mower Country farmer who left everything to Callie, so they could afford this move), followed by two other sons, one of whom became one of the first farmers in the Imperial Valley. My father’s aunt Helen wrote him about this – in his old age my father took an interest in family history. I love Helen’s letters – that New England wryness with the added lightheartedness of the Midwest. She delighted that this brother of hers in the Imperial Valley “grew asparagus for the eastern market!” (Exclamation mark: hers.)
So, back to the subject of Nordic MN and beyond. My NE Anglo ancestors in MN were, by my father’s generation, blithely marrying Nordic folks (and Jews and Muslims – more stories there). But in those earlier days, many of the Anglo New Englanders had gotten there first and owned the best land and were the dreaded bankers.
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Since no one has answered my mazurka request (the mazurka occupied my mind and online explorations some years ago, when I could come up with nothing), I share this, if only so I can clear it from my overloaded desktop. What a wonderful dance!
http://socialdance.stanford.edu/syllabi/russian_mazurka.htm
It was a Polish dance, despite the “russian” in that address. The world was lively in the mid-nineteenth century! The world danced, as the CW loomed. Part of me thinks that was a good thing.
They actually don’t in Texas, as a full 40% of eligible voters never vote and a solid majority of white women vote GOP in every election. Hispanic Americans have a very low participation rate.
Voter suppression might nibble around the edges, but the main culprits are non-voters, followed by actual voters. Basically all they need to do to win is show up.
It’s also “godly” and “christian.”
I simply can’t believe that a cease-fire would enable Hamas to become so powerful in their completely broken country. Although the Israeli hierarchy was warned about a potential 10/7, now everyone KNOWS it, and Hamas could not/would not pull off another disaster such as this.
My question was about the bizarre hold that Israel has over the US. Disagreeing with what they are doing now is not antisemitism; it is humanism.
Do Texans really think an incompetent criminal perverted AG should be making medical decisions for the rest of the state? Seems like a bad idea. But then that is the GOP, evangelical brand. They seem fine having criminal perverts making the decisions for everyone. Then they get offended when you point out what gullible morons they are.
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Both sides in this horrible war are Semites. The Palestinians more like 100% whle the Jewish side much less so in the modern era. So to me being “antisemitic” is denegrating both sides.